


All I Want

by R_o_m_a_n_o_v_a



Category: Iron Man (Movies), Marvel Cinematic Universe, The Avengers (Marvel Movies)
Genre: Gen, Hurt Tony Stark, My First Fanfic, Team as Family, Tony Stark Feels, Tony Stark Gets a Hug, Tony Stark Has Issues, Tony Stark Needs a Hug
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2019-08-28
Updated: 2019-08-28
Packaged: 2020-09-28 12:50:58
Rating: General Audiences
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,257
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/20426282
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/R_o_m_a_n_o_v_a/pseuds/R_o_m_a_n_o_v_a
Summary: Tony had always been touch starved, and the team doesn't seem to realise how desperately he needs a hug.





	All I Want

**Author's Note:**

> Hi guys. This is the first work I've ever written, and writing stories is a whole new different experience for me. I hope you guys like my work anyway though, I'm going to try and get my writing to improve over time.

Tony had always been touch starved. Growing up with Maria and Howard Stark didn't really offer many opportunities for cuddle sessions, but the few hugs he did receive from his mama and Jarvis were memories he still clung to on the particularly bad days. After Afghanistan, he made sure that his armor had heating, and after a nightmare he still sometimes returned to the comforting metal cocoon and pretended Jarvis was giving him a hug.

  
MIT was probably the best time he'd had in his life, despite being bullied constantly. The reason he had such good memories of MIT was because he'd met Rhodey, the first person who was always willing to envelop him in a hug. Rhodey graduated pretty soon, though, and left to join the military, and then Tony turned to meaningless flings. He could almost believe that the people he took to bed were there because they loved him and wanted to hold him, but he'd never gotten used to the heartbreak whenever they left in the morning.

  
Pepper was a godsend. Tony hadn't realised what a gift she was until after Afghanistan when he thought he'd never see her again, but he vowed to never take her for granted after he returned. She was crisply professional at first, didn't offer him hugs and Tony didn't ask for them, but once they entered a relationship Tony realised how much he'd missed out on. Her hugs and cuddles made up for every time someone brushed past him without a sign of affection, every time he'd been turned away when all he'd wanted was a hug. But then Pepper left too, and Tony was alone. Again.

  
Enter the Avengers.

  
Tony knew the others thought Fury had coerced him into housing the team, but Tony had been the one to propose the idea. He'd customised each Avenger's floor, made space for everyone, and had already planned out team bonding nights before the Avengers had even moved in.

  
Steve had apologised for the words exchanged on the helicarrier as Tony showed him to his floor and he thought maybe he'd get a hug then, after he apologised too - but Steve had turned around and walked in to explore his room, and Tony felt strangely cold. He'd gone down to the kitchen and made himself a cup of coffee then, and let the warmth seep through his fingers in a poor substitute of human touch.

  
Clint was pretty touchy-feely, but the prank war between him and Tony meant that he could never be sure whether a pat on the back was a sign of affection or just Clint sticking a sign to his back. Watching Clint high five Natasha, wrestle with Thor and cuddle with Steve on movie nights while Tony headed back to work in the lab just meant that Tony felt more left out than ever.

  
Bruce didn't do touch, and Tony picked up on this very quickly. The first time he'd clapped a hand on Bruce's shoulder, Bruce had flinched away so quickly that Tony instantly felt bad. They worked in the lab together, and doing projects with and talking to Bruce did fill up all of Tony's emotional requirements. It was just his physical requirements, his longing for a hug or just a brief meaningful brush of skin against skin, that still remained unfulfilled even after his sessions with his science bro.

  
Natasha didn't do touch either, unless they were training. Any affectionate touches were reserved for Clint and Clint only, and Tony found that being strangled by Natasha's thighs wasn't actually helpful in solving his skin hunger issue.

  
And Thor - well, he probably would have cuddled with Tony if he were around more. He split his time fairly evenly between Asgard and Midgard, and a large amount of his time on Earth was spent with Jane Foster. Tony probably could have asked for a hug then, but he never did.

  
And everything was fine. It really was. Tony didn't need hugs, he was a grown man and he refused to be so pathetic. Howard's words for him to act like a man and to stop being childish echoed in his head every night as he huddled under his blankets, the uncomfortable sensation of prickling under his skin just further proof that he was weak and always would be.

  
It took another mission for everything to change, and it was all because of Loki.  
Loki appeared to have learnt from his mistakes. He seemed to have realised that humans had too much spirit to simply surrender to him, and now chose to break their spirit first before he took over the world.

  
"Now, Tony Stark, let us all witness your deepest and darkest desires," Loki announced with a smirk. "Will your team still wish to fight beside you once they know what secrets you hide?"

  
Tony barely got enough time to process what was about to happen before he was thrown into a vision so violently he felt mildly nauseous. One second he was eighty feet in the air and fighting Loki on top of a building, the next moment he seemed to be in Avengers tower. The suit retracted automatically, and Tony was left mildly confused until somebody enveloped him in a tight embrace from behind.

  
Turning around with a start, Tony realised that it was the Captain who was hugging him, the rest of the team right behind. Without a word, they stepped forward and hugged him too, Natasha's fingers messing up his hair and Bruce's thumbs digging into and massaging his aching shoulders. Tony allowed himself to melt into their arms, feeling a warmth radiate from the arc reactor - or his heart - before he was jerked out of the vision as violently as he was thrown into it. His armour was suddenly around him again, and he was still in the air, but Thor now had Loki in chains and was handing him over to the agents who'd come to collect him. Everyone seemed visibly shaken, and Tony realised what happened. Loki had made everyone else witness his vision as well.

  
Tony landed the armour beside the rest of the team, terrified. He wasn't sure if he could bear to have them think of him as weak, not after he'd started to consider them family.

  
"Hey guys," he started, voice shaky even to his own ears, and realised he could not continue. He would face this like a man, though, he was not a coward and did not hide away from situations like this - and was stunned when Natasha stepped forward and hugged him.

  
"Antoshka," she sighed, "You should have said something."

  
Completely lost, Tony turned to Steve, and noticed tears glimmering in his eyes right before he stepped forward and hugged him too.

  
Tony opened his mouth to protest, to say that he didn't need hugs, or to say that the vision was a lie, but Natasha stepped back and Clint took her place with the strongest hug he'd received since Rhodey had hugged him after Afghanistan.

  
"There is no shame in seeing affection from a fellow warrior," Thor announced.

  
"Tony." Steve finally loosened his hold around Tony's waist. "Tony, you should have said something sooner, we could have given you all the hugs you needed." He looked straight into Tony's eyes to emphasise his point. "You can come to us, Shellhead. Always."

  
Surrounded by people who cared about him even after discovering his weaknesses, held in a tight embrace in the middle of a battlefield, Tony finally felt at peace.

**Author's Note:**

> So I hope this was okay. English is not my first language and writing this was pretty hard. I really want to become a better writer though, so if you guys could leave a review and give constructive criticism I would really really appreciate it.


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